April 14, 2013

Mariners 4, Rangers 3 (F)

SEATTLE -- Nick Tepesch's encore to his major-league debut resulted in his first career loss Sunday as Seattle salvaged a four-game split with the Texas Rangers by virtue of a 4-3 victory.

Tepesch beat Tampa Bay last week by allowing only one run on four hits in 7 1/3 innings, but he surrendered four runs on nine hits in 5 2/3 innings Sunday.

The Mariners got single runs in the second, on back-to-back one-out doubles, and in the fourth, on a leadoff homer by Raul Ibanez, against Tepesch, who pitched out of trouble in the fifth to preserve a 3-2 lead.

But the Mariners scored twice in the sixth on three straight one-out hits, a string that started with a double by Kyle Seager. Tepesch struck out Robert Andino to end his day, and Michael Kirkman got the Rangers into the seventh down 4-3.

The Rangers didn’t fare much better against Maurer, who entered with a 16.20 ERA. He gave up only three runs, and one of those was unearned, to pick up his first major-league win.

Mitch Moreland made it 1-0 in the second when he doubled in Geovany Soto with two outs, and the Rangers added two more two-out runs in the fifth on a Lance Berkman single and a passed ball.

The Rangers saw the tying run reach third base with two outs in the eighth, but Soto popped out to right field.